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Northwestern Mutual CEO and executives

Executive Summary. Based on our data team's research, John E. Schlifske is the Northwestern Mutual's CEO. Northwestern Mutual has 6,701 employees, of which 46 are in a leadership position.
Here are further demographic highlights of the leadership team:
  • The Northwestern Mutual executive team is 39% female and 61% male.
  • 59% of the management team is White.
  • 16% of Northwestern Mutual management is Hispanic or Latino.
  • 11% of the management team is Black or African American.
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Name & TitleBio
John E. Schlifske

Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

John E. Schlifske's LinkedIn

John E. Schlifske is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Northwestern Mutual, and is a member of the Board of Trustees. Schlifske joined Northwestern Mutual as an investment specialist and later led a variety of the company's investment operations as well as different parts of its business operations.

Juan C. Zarate

Chairman and Co-Founder of Financial Integrity Network

Nicholas E. Brathwaite

Co-Founder and Partner of Riverwood Capital

Aditi Javeri Gokhale

Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer, President of Retail Investments and Head of Institutional Investments

Aditi Javeri Gokhale's LinkedIn

Fortune 100 Executive & Entrepreneur skilled at launching global brands into the digital and online arena.

Deep experience in digital marketing, management consulting, P&L management and business development. Expert in identifying new revenue generation opportunities especially in the digital space, launching new businesses, effecting business turnarounds and negotiating multi-million dollar partnerships resulting in double digit growth.

MIT Sloan MBA with proven ability to manage a $300MM P&L in a large financial services company, Co-Founder / CMO of a digital marketing company for small business owners and advisor to C-level executives of Fortune 500 companies at Booz•Allen & Hamilton. Skilled in leading both large (75+) and small teams and navigating highly matrixed organizations.

Benjamin F. Wilson

Board Member

John M. Grogan

Executive Vice President, Chief Insurance Officer

John M. Grogan's LinkedIn

As Executive Vice President - Insurance Products and Client Services, John M. Grogan is responsible for the strategy and performance of the company’s insurance businesses, and for support and servicing of Northwestern’s insurance and investment clients. This includes overall leadership responsibility for the Life, Disability, Long-Term Care and Annuity product lines, and for the transformation of the client service experience. He also serves as a member of the company’s Senior Leadership Team.

Grogan joined the company as an attorney in 1992 and has held a variety of positions in the Law, Policy Benefits, Agency, Disability Income, Investment Product and Services, and Planning and Sales Departments. In 2004, he was appointed an executive officer of the company. He served as president and chief executive officer of the Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company during the financial crisis from 2008 to 2010. In 2010, he led the company strategy for integrating all support to the field across products, planning and markets.

Before joining Northwestern Mutual, Grogan worked for a federal judge in Kansas City, Missouri, and as a certified public accountant for Arthur Andersen in Chicago.

Grogan is a graduate of Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and of the Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago. He also completed the Kellogg Management Institute at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

He currently serves on the boards of City Forward Collective and Marquette University High School.

John is married to his wife, Denise, and has four children.

Mary Ellen Stanek

Board Member

Neal J. Sample

Chief Information Officer

Neal J. Sample's LinkedIn

Neal joined Express Scripts in February 2016. Neal manages overall information technology strategy and performance, specifically focusing on innovative solutions, process improvements and improving productivity. Neal is responsible for ensuring the information systems are aligned with business strategies. He most recently served as President, Enterprise Growth, at American Express. In addition, he was Executive Vice President, CIO and Chief Marketing Technologist for American Express Enterprise Growth. Prior to joining American Express, Neal held leadership roles at eBay and Yahoo!. He earned a B.A. and M.S. in Computer Science at the University of Wyoming and also holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University. Neal reports to Tim Wentworth.

P. Russell Hardin

Board Member

Ralph A. Weber

Founding Member of Gass Weber Mullins LLC

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Northwestern Mutual jobs

Northwestern Mutual founders

Name & TitleBio
Juan C. Zarate

Chairman and Co-Founder of Financial Integrity Network

Nicholas E. Brathwaite

Co-Founder and Partner of Riverwood Capital

Northwestern Mutual board members

Name & TitleBio
John E. Schlifske

Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

John E. Schlifske's LinkedIn

John E. Schlifske is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Northwestern Mutual, and is a member of the Board of Trustees. Schlifske joined Northwestern Mutual as an investment specialist and later led a variety of the company's investment operations as well as different parts of its business operations.

Juan C. Zarate

Chairman and Co-Founder of Financial Integrity Network

Nicholas E. Brathwaite

Co-Founder and Partner of Riverwood Capital

Benjamin F. Wilson

Board Member

Mary Ellen Stanek

Board Member

P. Russell Hardin

Board Member

Ralph A. Weber

Founding Member of Gass Weber Mullins LLC

Aarti S. Shah

Board Member

Aarti S. Shah's LinkedIn

Aarti Shah, Ph.D., currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Information and Digital Officer at Lilly, a global healthcare leader and Fortune 500 pharmaceuticals corporation. She leads an enterprise-wide global organization with responsibilities for information technology (IT), information security (IS), advanced analytics and data science (AADS), and digital health (DH). She is currently a member of Lilly's executive committee (EC) and reports to the CEO.

Aarti serves on the boards of Northwestern Mutual and NVIDIA corporation. She has served on several non-profit boards, including those of Indianapolis Public Library Foundation, Center of Interfaith Cooperation (CIC) and currently serves on the Indiana India Business Council (IIBC) and as a trustee for Shrimad Rajchandra Love and Care organization (SRLC-USA).

Anne M. Paradis

Board Member

Dale E. Jones

Board Member

Northwestern Mutual leadership demographics

Northwestern Mutual gender distribution in management team

  • The Northwestern Mutual executive team is 39% female and 61% male.
  • Northwestern Mutual is 38% female and 62% male company-wide.
Male
Male
61%
Company-wide: 62%
Female
Female
39%
Company-wide: 38%

Northwestern Mutual executives by race

Management Team:
  • The most common ethnicity among Northwestern Mutual executive officers is White.
  • 59% of the management team is White.
  • 16% of Northwestern Mutual's management is Hispanic or Latino.
  • 11% of the management team is Black or African American.
Company-wide:
  • White is the most common ethnicity company-wide.
  • 64% of employees are White.
  • 14% of employees are Hispanic or Latino.
  • 10% of employees are Black or African American.
  • Management team
  • General
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Unknown
White
Black or African American
Asian
Hispanic or Latino

Northwestern Mutual jobs nearby

What employees say about the executives at Northwestern Mutual

Employee reviews
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4.0
A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2023
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

I loved how fast-paced it was.

Cons of working at Northwestern Mutual

It was very result-oriented and thats what the managers cared about.

Northwestern Mutual benefits

My favorite part of the business was the commission structure.

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4.0
A zippia user wrote a review on Jan 2021
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

Great mentoring and leadership. Phenomenal training program.

Northwestern Mutual benefits

Complete autonomy

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1.0
A zippia user wrote a review on May 2020
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

2001-2008, after that year it all went downhill.

Cons of working at Northwestern Mutual

The process by which they review employees is extremely flawed. Just look at anyone who post something constructive about them. It will be followed by one of their puppets replying in a condescending way. If you challenge your team leads, you will literally be “shushed”. However, if you like to be in control, take pride in your monkey mind, will take papers out of a filing cabinet just to put them back in the same way to stay “busy”.....you might fit right in and make good money!

Northwestern Mutual benefits

The people at the Starbucks there were nice. It was nice visiting them, kind of like a dose of human during the day. The free lunch isn’t worth it. For real, people are so paranoid of being late from lunch, if you’re in line for food, there will usually be someone behind you having a panic attack that you’re not moving fast enough. I’m grateful I’m gone.

Is this useful?1 people found this review helpful
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4.0
A zippia user wrote a review on Dec 2019
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

I love how diverse Northwestern Mutual is. There are also many opportunities to move up in different areas of the company.

Cons of working at Northwestern Mutual

I feel that there is sometimes a divide between leadership and the rest of the employees.

Northwestern Mutual benefits

My favorite perk was the free lunch everyday and access to the parking structure.

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3.0
A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2019
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

Great environment. My mentor, the Network Office Director, is one of the nicest men I have ever met, and I truly enjoyed working with him. I can’t speak to other offices, but the one I was in, was great.

Cons of working at Northwestern Mutual

The job is sold as a financial advisor role, which is what I ultimately wanted. But, after going through training, I realized my performance would be measured by insurance sales. I can understand them wanting reps to sell insurance, as that is how the company started, but I brought over quite a bit in Assets, and pressure was still applied because I didn’t have enough ‘lives’. I understand how a real financial plan includes risk management, or insurance, but at the end of the day, NM reps, especially those who have been there for less than 3 years, are insurance salesmen. That’s how performance is measured.

Northwestern Mutual benefits

The freedom. I really appreciated being able to make my own schedule. It was tough to give up, but I was so stressed and anxious on a daily basis, it just wasn’t worth it.

Is this useful?1 people found this review helpful
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4.0
A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2019
Pros of working at Northwestern Mutual

Great company with great reputation. World class training, people, and culture.

Cons of working at Northwestern Mutual

If you're someone looking for a strong team environment, Northwestern Mutual probably isn't the place for you.

Northwestern Mutual benefits

Freedom to create my own schedule

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Northwestern Mutual executives FAQs

Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of Northwestern Mutual, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about Northwestern Mutual. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at Northwestern Mutual. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by Northwestern Mutual. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of Northwestern Mutual and its employees or that of Zippia.

Northwestern Mutual may also be known as or be related to Northwestern Mutual, Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC, Northwestern Mutual Life Ins, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance and Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.